But a little over two decades after Lieut. Governor John Graves
Simcoe had written to the Duke of Portland announcing the
military opening of Yonge Street, "from York to the Head-Waters
of Lake Huron,"[1] there journeyed north over that highway as far
as Richmond Hill-then known as Miles' Hill[2]-a man who was to
make his stopping-place the pivotal point for a ministry of over
a quarter of a century. That man was Rev. William Jenkins, the
pioneer among pioneer ministers of the Presbyterian denomination
in the region lying between the future metropolis of Ontario and
Lake Simcoe.
A native of Scotland, he had, after the completion of his
divinity course at Edinburgh, corm first to New York State as a
missionary to the Oneida Indians. There he spent twelve years,
but feeling that his real life-work lay among the struggling
pioneers of Upper Canada he set out for his new and chosen field
on his own resources.
It has generally been claimed that he came into Canada, via
Kingston, in 1817, but from family tradition, it seems certain
that he arrived a year earlier and that the intervening twelve
months were spent in itinerant preaching, which took him
through much of the Bay of Quint‚ region and westward as far as
the Caledon Mountains. In this way he gained a more or Iess
intimate knowledge of the conditions confronting those among
whom he had chosen to minister. During that period, too, he
formed acquaintanceships-which were to ripen and bear fruits-in
the years to follow. The great new military and colonization
road seemed to strike a natural centre line through the territory
which he hoped to serve, and accordingly when calls came in
1817 from little groups of settlers at Scarboro[3] and Richmond
Hill[4] he responded by organizing churches at those points.
Still, for a number of years his itinerant ministry continued,
for though regularly organized, the two pioneer congregations
were not at once able to rear their first church buildings.
Travel was, for the most part, on horseback and by blazed
trails through the forests. Meetings were held in the settlers'
log homes or barns or in the open. The first church at Bendale,
Scarboro, a frame structure, was erected in 1819 and that at
Richmond Hill, a quite commodious frame building of a very
substantial character, in 1821. They were respectively replaced
by the present permanent brick structures in 1849 and 1880.
At the close of twelve years the charge at St. Andrew's, Scarboro,
was turned over to another, but throughout his lengthy ministry
Richmond Hill seems to have been the centre of his activities. That
ministry was replete with incident. Reared in Free Church sentiment,
he was active in the organization, in 1834, of what was known as "The
Missionary Presbytery of the Canadas in connection with the United
Associate Synod of Scotland."
By a regrettable mischance a trunk-full of papers and correspondence,
dealing with the Upper Canada Free Church movement, was destroyed.
Had these papers been preserved they would no doubt have cast much
light upon events leading up to the great cleavage of 1844 in the
ranks of Canadian Presbyterianism.
When opponents from within his own denomination had to be met it
was but to be expected that at times there would be verbal tilts
with protagonists from without and such was the case. It so happened
that he and Bishop Strachan, the greatest of all defenders of
ecclesiastical establishment in early Upper Canadian history, had,
as youths in Scotland, been both chums and fellow-churchmen. Meeting
on one occasion, the struggling minister from the upcountry backwoods,
the now prosperous bishop accosted his whilom friend with the rather
cutting remark:
"Your coat's getting pretty threadbare, William."
"Yes, Jock," came the still more biting reply, "but I hae nae turned it."
A minister who could so neatly turn the point out of the pulpit
might be expected to be able to defend his prerogatives while in
it. Sleeping parishioners are by no means a modern development,
for Rev. Mr. Jenkins had them in his day. One Sunday, a prime
offender in this particular, completely wrecked the preacher's
patience by adding snoring to his accomplishments. Seizing a Bible
from the desk before him, he is said to have hurled it against the
offending head with the remark, "If you will not hear the Word of God,
then feel it."
If there was intellectual stress and trial of patience there
was also physical exertion and hardship. On one occasion while
travelling by sleigh in winter, he and a companion were
overtaken by night. Wrapping themselves in deer skins, -with
which they were fortunately well supplied, they spent the night
under their overturned and snow-banked vehicle.
If the minister did not shrink from hardship or fatigue neither
did members of his far-fiung flock for it is on record that a
father and mother walked from Caledon East to Richmond Hill,
carrying by turns their infant child, that it might receive
baptism at the hands of their respected minister. It was a
three day journey in each direction.
Then, too, money was a none too plentiful commodity as was
frequently demonstrated when marriage fees were often paid in
loads of pumpkins or coils of home-made sausages. There were also
novel events as when, on one winter's day, a wedding party of
several couples, came to the manse from one of the Highland
Scottish settlements farther north, bringing with them a piper.
When the knots had been duly tied willing hands quickly cleared
the snow from the yard and there in the frosty open air the
principals and their hardy friends held the post-nuptial dance.
There seems to be some doubt as to the actual amount of the
stipend given to the pioneer minister, but at all events it was
never large, for he was forced to eke it out by operating a two
hundred acre farm on which were reared his large family.[5]
This homestead was located near Cashel in Markham Township and
was reclaimed from the virgin forest
It is said that the Rev. Mr. Jenkins' first sermon at Richmond
Hill was preached in the pine grove which once covered the site
of the present Richmond Hill Presbyterian Church and its adjoining
cemetery. In that cemetery a monument marks his last resting-place;
the spot where he wished to lie having been pointed out to his elders
by the veteran missionary following the close of his last service,
less than a week before his death. It bears the following inscription:

Sacred
to the memory of
Rev. William Jenkins,
A Minister of the Gospel
for 44 Years,
Who departed this life
Sept. 25, 1843:
Aged 63 yrs. 11 mos.
& 28 Days
Sleep on dear friend and take thy rest,
Till Jesus calls thee from thy bed of dust.

As though in additional memory a descendant of one of the
original pines flourishes nearby, and on long summer evenings
casts its lengthening shadows over monument and grave.
MARRIAGE REGISTER, 1819-1843.
The following is a literal copy of the private (note) marriage
register kept by the Rev. William Jenkins, extending as the dates
will show, over the lengthy period of twenty-four years. The
entries were recorded in a leather-bound volume measuring
8 1/4 x 12 3/4 inches and the book, despite the evidences of
much handiing, is still (1930) in a good state of preservation.
The paper forming it is of heavy quality, unruled, and bears on
many pages a quaint water-mark showing the figure of Britannia,
seated and holding an olive branch in the right hand. Surrounding
the figure is a plain, circular belt surmounted by a crown.
Other pages bear, also in water-mark, the date 1812.Writing in many instances is very indistinct and the ink pale,
and where abbreviations are used some of them are oddly original.
Surnames are at all times difficult of interpretation and it would
appear that the good old cleric had frequent recourse to the science
of phonetics and that as a consequence bearers of the same cognomen
who pronounced it with variations in accent, find their place in
the record rendered according to sound rather than to orthography.
There are a few repetitions and omissions in the consecutive numbering of
the marriages but when these have been taken into account there
remains a total of 857 ceremonies which, as each entry records not only
the names of the principals, but in almost all cases also those of two
witnesses makes the grand total of names well over 3400.
There are also evidences which appear to indicate that the record was at
times brought up to date from memory; perhaps in connection with marriages
performed at a distance from the church or manse, for the parish was a wide
one extending, as the entries show, from York (Toronto), on the
south to the borders of Lake Simcoe on the north, and from the
Township of Pickering in Ontario County on the east, to the Township
of Esquesing in Halton County on the west.
The difficulties encountered in making a faithful transcript were numerous,
for in many places great doubt existed as to certain key letters in some
of the names. While such discrepancies are mentioned it must be remembered
that perhaps these now faded, and sometimes seemingly careless entries,
were made under most trying pioneer conditions; perhaps when fingers were
numbed by cold, when the logwood ink was pale from the addition of too
much water or the recent effects of frost, when the glow from the open
fire-place was uncertain, when the tallow candie flickered low, or lastly
when the noisy witnesses of the recent tying of the knot made it difficuit
for even the minister to be as calm, collected and methodical as was his
wont. Be all this as it may, the record is one of rare interest in connection
with a period when the history of a central section of our Province was in
the making, when new homes were being established in the forests on either
side of old Yonge Street, and when it took courage, patience and resolution
to minister, in spiritual things, to so wide a territory.
Note:-From all that can be learned it wouid appear that the official church
register has unfortunateiy been lost. The book containing the list of
marriages given herewith was the private property of Rev. Mr. Jenkins; a fact
which is borne out by its having been used also for the keeping, by him, of
certain day-book records of a strictly private nature. This private register
was handed down in the Jenkins family coming finally into the possession of
Mr. J. L. Jenkins, of King, Ont., a grandson of the pioneer minister, by whom
it was turned over to the Richmond Hill Presbyterian Church.
[Note:- I have been advised this register is available on microfilm from the LDS church,
on # 1030051, and 1030052.]
FOOTNOTES
[1]February 27, 1796-Simcoe Papers, Vol. IV, p. 201.
[2]So named from Abner Miles one of York's first inn-keepers
whose tombstone bears one of the earliest dates in the Richmond
Hill cemetery-viz. that of his death July 26, 1806, at the age
of 54 years. He was a native of the State of Massachusetts.
[3]The call from Scarboro is dated Feb. 12, 1817. The church was
organized the following year.
[4]The call from Richmond Hill is dated April 10, 1817, and the
church there was organized the same year. This call really came
from the residents of the district rather than the village;
described as "a portion of the Township of Markham and Whitchurch."
[5]His wife was Mary H. Stockton, daughter of Dr. Stockton of New
Jersey. Their union was blessed with eleven children, nine of whom
survived infancy. She rests beside her husband in the Richmond Hill
Cemetery, having died July 24, 1866, aged 74 years and five months.
[The following record is not found in the book I used, but was found on the filmof the register. Thanks to Jane Wright Hutchinson.
"June 25, 1828 Joshua Wright of Scarborough to Miranda Stephens, same place. Witnesses - Mary Wright and Thomas Stevens. " LSD film 1030051.]